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440 María José Rodríguez-Salgado

Barbarossa’s Revenge

A greater dent in the emperor’s reputation was made by
Barbarossa. His actions overshadowed and neutralised the impact of
the emperor’s victory. «He has left in tatters, defeated ... he will have
to look to his own defence rather than to attack and offend others» («Va
desecho y roto ... antenderá antes a guardarse que a offender y hazer
daño»). With these confident words Charles V dismissed the threat
from Barbarossa in August 1535 126 . The dignitaries who met the
emperor in Sicily and Naples commented that he was only interested
in talking «delle cose di Tunisi, delle quali ne tien memoria» and
basking in adulation, as Paolo Giovio commented 127 . However, outside
the imperial court, as September 1535 drew to a close it was
yesterday’s news. «I do not write about the taking of Tunis, as the news
is known to all the world», wrote Bernardino Sandro to Thomas
Starkey from Venice, writing instead of substantial Christian losses as
a result of Barbarossa’s latest depredations 128 . Doria’s failure to
intercept the Muslim forces was widely condemned 129 . Then came the
shocking news of Barbarossa’s brutal sacking of Mahón in Menorca 130 .
On 1 September, Ottoman-Algerian forces with some 30 vessels and
3,000 troops docked where Charles V had stopped on his way to Tunis.
They took the port on 5 September, sacking it and leaving the following
day with some 800 captives and ample booty 131 . Charles V was
informed on 16 September. Within a few days the news reached Rome

and thence to France. Some accounts put Barbarossa’s fleet at 50
ships; several stated that the captives and goods he had taken more
than compensated for his losses in Tunis 132 . News of the raids of the
Ottoman-corsair fleet all the way back to Istanbul also circulated and
there was even speculation it might destroy the Spanish galley
squadron – which it narrowly missed 133 . Distortions soon appeared.

126 Cdcv, II, p. 443, Charles V to Lope de Soria, 16 August 1535.
127 P. Giovio, Lettere Volgari di Mons. Paolo Giovio, Appresso G.B. et M. Sessa,
Venezia, 1560, Giovio to Carpi, Rome, 28 December 1535. Charles V spent much of his
meeting with Pier Luigi Farnese talking of «la victoire de Thunis», Du Bellay, II, p. 160,
Du Bellay and Denonville to Francis I, 27 November 1535.
128 LP, ix, n. 512, Sandro to Starkey, Venice, 1 October 1535.
129 V.-L. Bourrilly (ed.), Lettres écrites d’Italie par François de Rabelais (Décembre
1535-Fébrier 1536), Honoré Champion, Paris, 1910, p. 49, note 2, citing Jean du
Bellay’s letter to Francis I, 5 November 1535.
130 KFI, V, p. 260, Charles V to Ferdinand I, 13 June 1535.
131 The controversial accounts of treason in Ags, E, 468 ff. 85 and 86, s.d. [ca. 6-18
September 1535] and in www.archivodelafrontera.com. My thanks to Miguel Deyá and
Miguel Ángel de Bunes for information on the captives taken.
132 Du Bellay, p. 109, Du Bellay and Denonville to Francis I, 23 September 1535.
133 Charrière, I, p. 277, Lavaur to Jean du Bellay, Rome, 29 September 1535.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)